Richard of York, buried in Leicester

Richard of York gave battle in vain according to the old nursery rhyme.  And now the same is true for the distant relations of his who fought to have the king's remains buried in York. They had battled for the last of the Plantagenets to be buried in the city which gave him his name rather than in Leicester where his body had been interred after his defeat at the Battle of Bosworth.  Today, three High Court judges dismissed the judicial review into the decision over where Richard's remains should be buried meaning his funeral in Leicester can now go ahead.  Richard III, King of England and son of York will be buried in Leicester in a grand tomb, 530 years after he was laid to rest so hastily in the very same city.

Richard III, King of England

Richard, the great villain of English history and the most monstrous of Shakespeare's royal portrayals, continues to fascinate.  He was the son of one of the most famous and powerful men in the country - Richard, Duke of York - and the brother of Edward IV, the handsome and popular king who almost settled the War of the Roses before his early death plunged England into new conflict.  Richard III grew up in the spotlight, lived his whole adult life before the watching eyes of chroniclers and king's messengers and yet the man who was monarch remains a mystery.  Over half a millennium after he was killed at the battle which changed English history forever, his story is still only partly told and the gaps allow imaginations to wander and turn empty spaces in the record into fantastic theories that engage and fascinate in equal measure.

The dark haired man who was Richard III is usually portrayed as looking much older than his age - he was just 32 when he died at Bosworth in August 1485

And now there is another chapter in his endlessly intriguing tale.  After the Battle of Bosworth, his body was taken to Leicester to prove that the king who had ruled in such tempestuous circumstances for little over two years was really dead.  He was buried by monks and within decades the location of his body was forgotten.  Richard became the great villain, a pantomime figure to boo and hiss with no memorial to him until the Richard III Society put up a plaque at Bosworth hundreds of years after his death.  The archaeological dig beneath a car park in Leicester to find his remains turned from a curious incident of historical research to a global sensation when it was confirmed that the king had been discovered.  And now he will get one of the grandest and most elaborate of tombs of all the kings of England.  It is also likely to become one of the most popular as a tourist destination.  Which just goes to show that this intriguing monarch has a power to entertain and beguile, all these years on.  The story of Richard III just got a lot more interesting.